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Why public money was ‘squandered’ in buying power at higher rates: Rahul asks PM

NEW DELHI

1 Dec 2017

Continuing his attack against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi today asked him why public money was "squandered" in purchasing power at higher rates from private companies. Asking the third question in the series "a question a day", Gandhi asked Modi why the coffers of four private firms were filled between 2002-2016 by buying power of Rs 62,549 crore. "My third question to the prime minister. Why were the coffers of four private companies filled between 2002-16 by buying power of Rs 62,549 crore.
"By reducing the capacity of state power units by 62 per cent, why was power bought from private companies at upto Rs 24 per unit against Rs 3 per unit? Why was public money squandered," he asked the prime minister on Twitter. Gandhi has sought accountability from the ruling BJP for the promises the saffron party made to the state in previous polls. "22 salon ka hisaab, Gujarat mange jawaab (Gujarat demands answers for 22 years of BJP rule," is the tagline of Gandhi's posers to the prime minister.
The Congress vice-president previously asked Modi why the people of Gujarat should pay up for the "financial mismanagement" and publicity by him. He also asked whether it will take 45 more years to provide new houses to Gujaratis as the incumbent BJP government in the state has provided only 4.72 lakh houses in the last five years against the promised 50 lakh.
Meanwhile,Union minister Jitendra Singh today hit out at Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi over his visits to temples ahead of assembly polls in Gujarat, and said the people cannot be mislead by his "hypocrisy". "Religion is a person issue. That is why it comes naturally to those who practise it, whether they are Hindus, Muslims or Christians. As far as BJP leaders and activists are concerned, their faith is personal and comes naturally. "It does not happen unnaturally as it is happening in the case of Rahul Gandhi, who thinks of going to a temple when he is in Gujarat, but may not have visited a temple close to his Delhi residence," he told reporters in reply to a question on Gandhi's visit to various temples in Gujarat.
"What Prime Minister Narendra Modi is practicising, comes naturally to him and the whole country knows about it. It is not on the eve of an election that he has to start visiting a temple or try to appear to be religious minded as is being done by some of the Congress leaders. Gujarat of 2017 cannot be mislead by this hypocrisy," Singh said. He said that the Congress has "grossly misjudged" the reality of the ground. "They are trying to play tricks of the past without realising that the voter has moved ahead. And, therefore, they will realise that this is going to be one-sided contest in Gujarat," he added. Gujarat votes in two phases on December 9 and December 14. Votes will be counted on December 18.(PTI)